Greg Sankey says SEC is best Conference BY FAR & Texas Tech challenges Texas to Week 1 game

What would the SEC come out and say? And what did we get? Propaganda, awesome. I'm sorry, like Nick Sabin is no longer there with his big ol' coat tails for you to ride as a conference. The answer can't be go home, because then college football, as we know, it is over. What you're hearing right now? That's just a good, old-fashioned slow clap. (dramatic music) Hey, welcome into the program. This is the Joel Klaachom Joel Klaach. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. We roll on in the off season. Here we are. It's another Monday, and we are glad you are with us. Last week I gave you my things that I learned at big 10 spring meetings. And now we had the SEC spring meetings last week in Destin, Florida. So I thought that we should recap what we learned from the SEC spring meetings. And I gotta be honest, it wasn't a lot. We thought that there would be some information. Remember, there was some anticipation about a potential playoff model being backed by everybody else in college football. And what did we get? Propaganda, awesome. Let's get into it. The five things that we learned in Destin, Florida at SEC spring meetings. Let's start with what Greg Sankie said. And it was basically, hey, we're the best. And it was like, wait, how about everything else that's going on in college football? We're just gonna wash over that. We're not gonna talk about playoff formats or anything, we're just gonna sit here and wave the flag. Yes, that's exactly what happened. This is what he said. Greg Sankie said, if you look at the entirety of our league, we are by far, he said, the most competitive, the strongest football league by far. What you're going, but you're going to lose games when it's close and competitive like that. So we have, so why have they surpassed us? It's an odd ball. It's a bounce a couple of times the wrong way. Okay. That is false. I like Greg a lot. And here's the thing. What's he supposed to say? Of course he's gonna say that. Does the language go too far? Obviously, obviously. They are not by far the best conference in college football and candidly, I don't even know if you can call them the best conference in college football. Now, here's the thing, you can get caught up and just kind of like this mud slinging and like, we're the best, we're the best. Why don't we just go to the data? Why don't we call balls and strikes? Cause here's the thing at a meeting like that, Greg is saying this to a group of writers who largely want that to be true. And he's writing that to a group of consumers who largely want that to be true. So at that point, he's just talking to his base, right? Like, that's his job. So I'm not blaming him for saying this, but if you go to the date of the data suggests something very different. If you believe what he said, deep down in your heart, it's because you want to believe what he said. You don't want to see the data. You don't want to see the truth. And that's fine. And that's makes college football great by the way. If you're a fan and you're mad right now cause you sense what I'm about to talk about and you're thinking to yourself like, no way. Here he goes. That's fine because the passion in our sport is what makes our sport great. But what the data suggests is that what Greg said is absolutely false, absolutely false. Here's what the data suggests. If you just go to the biggest games in the country, the biggest games in college football, the college football playoff, what you would see is something that we've talked about. And a lot of people have talked about by the way. The big 10 is four and over the SEC over the last three playoffs. Four and O is not a small thing now. It's not this is not 2012. This is not 2016, 15. I'm sorry, like Nick Sabin is no longer there with his big old coattails for you to ride as a conference. It's not that way anymore. And the actual data suggests something different. And I know he was talking about a very narrow definition of best conference, but that's what they used forever, forever. So I'm using their own definition in terms of talking about the championships. But there's more, but that's obviously the tip of the iceberg. Michigan beat Alabama and over time in 2023 close game. Really great game. Ohio State blew the doors off of Tennessee. Sorry about that. All fans in 2024. Ohio State beat Texas. Great matchup in that semi final. Obviously the Jack Sawyer play in 2024. Indiana blew the doors off of Alabama and the Rose Bowl last year in 2025. That game was not close. In fact, here's what's interesting. If you were to actually look at some of these playoff games over the last three years in the time in which the big 10 is one three national championships, but not just three national championships with three different programs. See, that's the interesting part that the SEC teams don't want to talk about. This is not one program that you can just point to and say, oh, it's just one program somewhere else three different teams. One natties in the big 10 alone. And when you look at some of the margins in the games in the CFP, you find something very interesting. Check this out. Two of the three largest margins in the playoff over the last three years and power four versus power four matchups. Okay, so throw the group of five teams out. Throw the JM used in the two lanes and all of that out. If you're just talking about power four versus power four inner conference games. Indiana by 35 over Alabama and Ohio State by 25 over Tennessee are two of the three largest margins in all of the CFP power four versus power four. So no, it's not just a bounce Greg. I'm sorry. It wasn't just a bounce when Indiana ran the ball 50 times at Alabama. It wasn't just a bounce when the destor supernova buck eyes absolutely brought the wood to Tennessee. That wasn't even a game. It wasn't even a game. But you wouldn't have known that based on the commentary in that game because the commentary was safe for hate against Indiana in that year when they were getting beat by Notre Dame in a game that was much closer than what the Tennessee Ohio State game was. But again, narrative. What do you want to believe? Who are you getting your news from? Two of the two of the three largest margins in the playoffs over the last three years and power four versus power four matchups are Indiana by 35 over Bama and Ohio State by 25 over Tennessee. Where's the bounce there? I'm not seeing the bounce there. Last three playoffs. The SEC is two and five versus other power four teams plus Notre Dame two and five. Not just Owen for against the big 10 to and five against all other power four conferences. In fact, did you know that the only two power four wins the SEC has over other conferences in the playoff over that time frame, both Texas and 2024 Clemson and then the double over time game against Arizona State. How about the bounce there, Greg? Do you think Arizona State has an argument because that bounce and double over time probably could have gone their way? Do you see where I'm going with this? See, like if you just want to lean in wholeheartedly and be like, yeah, that's absolutely true. It's because you want it to be true. We can go past the CFP. If you don't want to narrow it down to the CFP and non CFP bowl games last season, the SEC went one in five against other power four conferences. Like this is supposedly like the strength here. This is supposed to be where you're getting this depth out of this conference. You see, I'm getting worked up because we constantly hear this and I understand that that's what they should say, but it is narrative and it is false. It is false backed up by the data. The data suggests something very different to in two and five in the playoff and then non CFP bowl games SEC went one in five Illinois beat Tennessee Iowa beat Vanderbilt. No one likes to talk up Iowa or Illinois. You don't see people in the big 10 propping up Iowa and Illinois is some like world beaters, but we get that out of the SEC when we're talking about Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Texas did handle Michigan. That was a great win for Texas, I'll call balls and strikes. You come out and win some games this year, Texas beats Ohio State Oklahoma beats Michigan. You dominate in the CFP and guess what? You're back on top because we allow the data here to tell us what's actually going on. That's what I like to do. Think about it this way. We just saw the calves get swept by the nicks, right? You know, I mean, we're all sports fans here. Was that a close series? I didn't think it was. I mean, a sweep is a sweep, right? Oh, and four sound familiar. Last three playoffs, Oh, and four big 10 SEC. James Harden though felt differently. He took the Greg Sanky mold and he was like, you know what? Genuinely, I do feel like we are the better team. I'm sorry. Does anyone believe that? The answer's no. So why would anybody believe what Greg Sanky was saying? It's not true. It wasn't true that the calves are the better team when they lost by 37 in the closeout game and game four or lost by 13 and game three at home or lost by 16 and game two. Game one was the only close game. Was that the bounce we're talking about? Here's the deal. I will gladly call balls and strikes. When you were the best conference, I said you were the best conference. The SEC dominated the sport for a long time. And it's been hard for them to admit the truth and you know what? You don't have to admit the truth. But the propaganda is what drives everybody else insane. You are not by far the best conference. You're not even the best conference and the data backs that up. So what do we learn? They fell right back on their narrative, fell right back on their narrative. What's number two of what we learned at SEC Media Day? They don't have a- plan for the CFP. I thought that we would get something along the lines of backing some sort of structure. We've seen that from every other league. We've seen that from the AFCA, American football coaches association. Everybody has been at least trying to back some sort of CFP model. Now in the past, Greg Sankey has backed a 16 team model, but there wasn't anything official last week. Greg Sankey said, V of Ross Dellinger, that the SEC's timeline under decision on a 24 team CFP expansion will likely come in the fall. So not in the spring meetings. Okay. So there was nothing new and nothing beneficial. They didn't put their stamp on or their name on we favor this model. We didn't even get like, no, we wanted to stand pat. We like 12. We didn't get the, we like 16. We didn't get, we like 24. That's not what we got. We didn't get anything. And that leads you to a conclusion. Here's the conclusion that you can obviously reach for what went on in Destin, Florida and what's going on right now in the SEC. I don't think they have any unification. They don't have any consensus of what they want. I think that you've got the coaches and athletic directors wanting one thing. I think you've got a portion of the president's wanting one thing. I think you've got Greg and the office wanting another. You've got their partner wanting another. They don't have a cohesive message right now. If they had a cohesive message, we would have heard it. We would have heard it. I think that they've got some dissension and the evidence is that there was nothing that came out of the meetings. What do you mean? We'll have a decision on expansion in the fall. I'm sorry. There's meetings in June for the CFP in Denver. So, so you're not going to have an answer by then. And let's, let's just backtrack for a moment because remember the CFP and its format, it's only going to change if the SEC and the big 10 agree on a format change. Now again, I'm not sitting here saying that you have to like the 24. You have to like the 12 or you have to like the 16. It's just that we didn't hear anything from the SEC, which tells me that they did not have a consensus. They did not have a unified voice and a meeting where they all pounded the table and said the same thing. You saw that in every other conference. I thought that was very fascinating. I think that they're going to try to fill a buster. He says a likely expansion decision will come in the fall when there's meetings in June. You see the longer that they can just drag this out, then nothing's going to change because the big 10 and the SEC have to agree based on the memory of understanding. So they're just going to fill a buster, which by the way, maybe not a bad strategy. If you're the SEC, the 12 team format with the selection based committee has really worked. You've got five teams in and partly because the narrative, which your partner and you push so heavily favors you, which that's great. That's great for them. Okay. But obviously we operate in silos in college football and that's one of the silos that we're operating in here. I think that the the lack of unified voice was something that was honestly the silence, deafening to me. I was like, Oh, they clearly have some major dissension amongst all the decision makers in there. Maybe they're still waiting to hear about the finances and how the finances would shake out. Because remember, I do think the two most valuable conference championship games are the big 10 and the SEC and maybe the SEC's is a touch more valuable in particular to them, which is fine. And so they would have to find out what are the what are the finances of expansion? If we get rid of a conference championship game, how do we recoup that investment? How do we recoup that revenue? Certainly and and that's something that they're going to have to check out. So what do we as a college football fan base have to look out for? What's next? Those CFP meetings in June, although based on Ross Dellinger's tweet, I don't know if we're going to get much if the SEC is not going to come with an idea or back an idea by June. And if that doesn't happen, then I don't know what's going to happen. I really don't. All right. And that leads us to another thing that we learned from spring meetings down there in Destiny. That was Kirby Smart. Listen, Kirby's going to bring something up that's going to be, I think highly controversial. And yet I agree with almost everything that he's going to say here. So Kirby smart backed by his president, by the way, he said that listen, if we can't all play by the same rules then maybe we need to leave break away and do it on our own in college football. Okay. Let's take the first part of that because the first part of this is absolutely true. And I think I know I fully support him back. What Kirby is trying to say here, we all need to be playing under the same rules. There's no doubt. Now you might have heard about this Senate bill that was starting to get floated around last week and they're starting to get pushed out there a little bit. And what the Senate bill in its in its general general purpose is trying to do is create an overarching umbrella that would it would allow these conferences to generate rules that everyone can play under. And in that way, you don't have one state doing it one way and another state doing it another way and you can you can circumvent kind of like all the state law issue when it gets into NIL and the CSE, the college sports commission. You see this gets all the legality and everything gets into the weeds and what they've been wanting and what Kirby is talking about is an overarching umbrella that everyone knows exactly how they're going to do it. I agree with that. I fully agree with that. There are portions of this Senate bill that I would absolutely agree with. Now the reason I'm not going to go through it line by line right now is it still needs to be negotiated and read lined and they need to go through committee before it ever gets to the Senate floor and then debated. All right. And we'll see if it ever even gets there. Is there some good stuff in there? Yeah. Would it provide what Kirby is talking about? Yeah, there are parts in there that would. And yes, he's right. We all need to be playing by the same rules and we all need a structure that's going to be sustainable long term. Now the answer can't be I'm going to take my ball and go home if we don't get that. That's where I disagree with Kirby smart. Okay. A breakaway from college football would be tragic. It would be unbelievably terrible for this sport that we all love. It would be the worst thing that happened in this sport. See, here's what's so fascinating about all of this is that there has been a lot of pushback against let's say like the 2014 model of the CFP format and I understand it. I understand it. By the way, there's other episodes of me talking about that and you can go listen to those on the on the YouTube channel. I understand that there are people that are not for the 2014 model. I totally get that. Now, do I think it's as hyperbolic as what they're saying and it's going to ruin the sport and it would be a travesty and all these things? No, no, no, no, it's certainly not there. I think there would be pluses and minuses and unintended consequences and unintended gains just like we saw going from, you know, two to four and then four to 12. We've seen that in the history of college football and that would again be true if we expanded to 24. Do I have my questions about it? Sure. Just like everybody else and you cannot like it. I'm that's fine. That's totally fine. But there are a certain sector in particular in the media that just the hype, the hyperbole is gone. They have really ratcheted it up. You know, some of the biggest voices out there in particular from from down around the SEC. This would be the most, the most terrible no good idea of all time. And yet, no one's going to raise their hand and talk about what a terrible no good, awful idea would be for the SEC to take their ball and go home and break away from college football. Can I please be the first to raise my hand and do that? Please, please, that would be a terrible idea. It would be the worst idea. So while his sentiment is absolutely right and that we need rules that everybody can play by and that we're all under the same umbrella, I totally support and get that. The answer can't be go home. It can't be that because then college football, as we know it is over. It's over. So you can hate the 2014 model. But please, somebody, somebody, say the quiet part out loud, breaking away is worse. Breaking away is worse. And we all know it. We all know it. So what are we going to get out of the Senate bill? I'm not sure. Should we get some more sustained model of college football? I sure hope so. There's no doubt. Should the CSE have antitrust protection, blah, blah, blah, probably, but all of that can get worked out. The answer can't be break away. It can't be break away because that ends college football as we know it. And candidly, that's what we're all trying to avoid. That's what we're all trying to avoid. That would be a terrible, awful idea for the sport. Please, somebody create that headline. Who's the first razor hand? I'll do it. I'll do it gladly. And you know what? I'll take all the incoming fire I can get for that opinion, because that would be an awful idea, awful idea. What's up next? What's up Clash Yo fans? I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for the best deal on tickets. And it's clear to me that seat geek is the answer with over 35 million downloads. Seat geek is the number one rated ticketing app. There are more than 70,000 events listed like concerts, festivals, sports, and more. Now I know college football has several months away, but MLB is in full swing. The NBA and NHL playoffs are here. And you can even get World Cup tickets on Seat Geek. Now, I really want to go to a World Cup game and so far with my boys. So I love using sea keek because I know that sea keek has my back. 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And as a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and our threes, we could go undefeated. Man, that's some confidence in your roster. There's no doubt. And then he goes on to say they'll probably make the CFP this year. Well, we all know that he's talking about Texas tech and guess who also knows he's talking about Texas tech. Joey McGuire, head coach of the red raiders. And so Joey McGuire. He jumped in and he said, hey, you know what? Let's go. McGuire took that and responded. We'd love to play Texas. We'll find out if there are twos and threes can win in this conference. McGuire said at the big 12 spring meetings, then Cody Campbell chimed in. He's obviously the big financial supporter of Texas tech athletics. And he said, hey, upping the ante, Texas tech will pay the buyout for both ACU, which is Abilene Christian and Texas state. So those are the games that Texas and Texas tech play against Abilene Christian and Texas state. And Cody Campbell is saying, hey, listen, you don't have to go pay them a million and a half dollars to play that non-conference games. We'll buy them out. They can go play each other on that same week. Let's go. We'll pay for it. They're calling Sark's bluff. So if you want to complain about their schedule, go play them. Go play them. I think this is hilarious. By the way, FS1 is set to broadcast the Texas tech game ESPN is set to broadcast the long horns in the Bobcats. I'm sure that could get worked out. Like financially guys, this could happen. Here's the wild part about this wild part. This absolutely could happen. If they wanted it to happen, if Texas wanted to play this game, if Sark wanted to take this challenge on and he wanted to go out there with his 2s and 3s, he wouldn't do it with his 2s and 3s. They could absolutely play a week one. Texas tech, I believe, would absolutely do this. And I believe they would absolutely pay for it. The question is, would Texas do it? The answer is absolutely not. Now, of course, they're not going to do that a week before they have to play Ohio State. And we've talked about the difficulty of their schedule. And listen, Sark in his sentiment is not wrong. But the hyperbole he uses that our 2s and 3s could go win every game on Texas tech schedule. Come on. Like that's just a slap in the face to every other college football player and coach in that conference. You know, at some point, you're a brotherhood. You're, you're, you're, you're someone of a fraternity in this business. And like, that's a real slap in the face. So of course, Joey McGuire is going to step up and, and defend his fraternity in his program. And, and obviously, Cody Campbell is going to do the same. Could this happen? Yes, it could absolutely happen. Will it happen? No. Who's going to stop it from happening? Texas. Obviously, obviously, I think it would be amazing though. Um, all of this is going on in the backdrop of Texas tech, really learning, maybe not a hundred percent, but the fate of their transfer quarterback, Brendan Soresby almost assuredly is not going to be playing college football next year. That's something that we learned last week. Soresby, uh, his career appears to be over. The NCAA rejected his appeal. Tech is still trying, but I like the revelation in the court docs was wild. He placed rubbly $90,000 in wagers over a four year span. Um, he bet at least 40 times on his own team when he was at Indiana. I know he was red shirting, but like, that's, he's, he's not playing college football. Like, I don't think that that's going to happen. I really don't. I mean, 40 times on your own team. That's a, that's a lot. That's a lot. So if Joey McGuire is willing to play Texas, which I absolutely believe he's willing to do, he probably understands that his quarterback going into next season is healthier than a lot of people have led you to believe. We're talking about Will Hammond. Will Hammond was the backup last year and played well at times. In fact, Gus and Jenny and I had that game at Utah. He had to come in late and really was an impetus for them coming back and and winning that game late against Utah. He's recovering from an ACL surgery and there was talk that he might not be fully healthy until week one, two, or three. I think he's healthier than that. I've been told that he could be a full go almost in camp time and that Texas tech feels really good about the way that he's recovering. He feels really good about the way that he's been recovering. So that, that's something that that I think is interesting. And then the last thing that we learned from SEC media days, and this is where we're all on board and we're all going to give a big standing ovation because I think we all love this even like real die hards of the SEC. No more cupcakes in the SEC late in the season. Here we go. You know that week, late November, right next to the end of the season, Brett McMurphy tweeted this out. SEC athletic directors vote to play conference games on the next to last week of the regular season starting in 2027. That's the end of the cupcake weekend SEC commission Greg Sankey said. That's just a good old fashioned slow clap. Goodbye, Mercer. Sorry, Mercer. Listen, no shade to Mercer. Love you. Love you. Don't love you the next the last weekend of the season in the SEC. And I think this is fantastic. We want to see better games more often in college football. This is one of the reasons that I I support expansion is that I believe that we'll get better and more valuable non conference games. I think that this is going to be good. Obviously they're moving to a nine conference game schedule. It's harder to fit a week like this into the so mostly this is out of logistics, but it's still I think a very good revelation moving forward so that we can all start to play similar schedule formats. Now I think everyone's going to argue about the difficulty of their weekend and week out basis and let's face it. That goes back to what Greg Sankey said to start this show. They feel like their weekend week out issue is a grind. Their schedule is a grind weekend and week out. And you know what they're not wrong. It's a very good conference. There's no doubt about it. There's a reason that the SEC had more players drafted than any other conference. It just so happens that every other data point except for the the total number of draft picks. favors other conferences, the record on the field, the first round draft picks, all these things that they hung their hat on for so long, championships, record on the field, bowl games, first round draft picks, that's gone away. And all they have is this total number of draft picks and a narrative. So what did we learn? Let me just recap this for you for a second. We learned that the SEC is not unified. And because of that, they did not support any sort of playoff structure, whether it was remaining the same and or expanding to 16 or 24. They didn't put their weight behind anything, which means they're not unified in the room. And if you're not unified in the room, what do you fall back on your old narratives? So they fall back on old narratives because they know that in the current system and the selection based system favors them and the narrative favors them. That's really what we learned. I don't think seceding is the right way to go. I fully support Kirby smarts sentiments and that we need rules that govern all of college football so that we're all playing by the same rules. Achieving that though is going to take some hard work. And what I don't want to see is some conference, whether the SEC or others that just take their ball and go home. Listen, we're going to have content all summer long getting you all set for college football for this fall. I think it's going to be a fantastic year. I really do. The lot of great teams, SEC might even have like great teams that go and win a national championship. And guess what? I'll be right here with the data, sharing you the data of what's true in college football. So we're going to have episodes every single Monday. If you have not subscribed to the show, I would encourage you to do so. We would appreciate that. I know that I came with a lot there. There was a lot of emotion and I don't know. Maybe I went too far. Let me know in the comments down below. What did you think of some of the things that I brought up, some of the data that I brought up during the course of today's show? If you're listening wherever you get your podcasts, go ahead and rate review us. That would be awesome. And then you can follow us on social media and you can catch all this content in shorter form wherever you like to social media at Joel Platt Show. Until next Monday, have a great week, everybody. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Jell to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Maybe it's Maybelline.